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THE GIRLS OF A HARD DAY’S NIGHT

Highlighting the uncredited lucky girls with bit parts in the Beatles’ first film!

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PRUE BURY 

Prue Bury’s (the pronunciation of her Belguim name rhymes with “blueberry”) career began in her childhood. As a little girl her dream was to become a dancer. At the age of 11 she joined the Royal Ballet School in London. At seventeen, in 1958, she joined the dance company of Covent Garden.

Everyday as she passed the Royal Court Theatre she was fascinated by beautiful portraits of actresses displayed there credited to Antony Armstrong-Jones. Prue plucked up her courage and sent two small photos of herself to the photographer and to her surprise Antony Armstrong-Jones (later First Earl of Snowdon, husband of Princess Margaret), called her for a photo session. Thus began Prue’s new career. In 1959 she left Covent Garden for a more lucrative career in modelling. Photographers loved her beautiful face and she was mainly featured in advertising for cosmetics, shampoo and toothpaste.

On weekends Prue enjoyed the trendy London clubs - going out to the Ad Lib and Saddle Room where she danced the Twist late into the night and crossed paths with celebrities. Among Prue’s fondest memories of the time she remembers an evening spent with Judy Garland, who was recovering from one of her numerous suicide attempts. Prue told Judy, “We need you to stop doing that Judy, we all love you.”

 Having switched careers on the cusp of the Swinging London fashion, musical and cultural revolution that was about to captivate the world Prue was at the forefront of the scene. Prior to filming A Hard Day’s Night Prue had already met and modelled for Mary Quant. Vidal Sassoon was her regular hair stylist - not one of his talented staff of stylists, but Vidal Sassoon himself. Prue had acted in a few uncredited roles in movies including the 1960 film, And Women Shall Weep - then in February 1964 her agent sent her to an appointment with director Richard Lester, who was making a film with the Beatles.

To this day Prue remembers arriving at the Park Lane for her casting call where there were hundreds of girls being interviewed. The next day she learned she’d been chosen with three other candidates. Lovely Prudence Bury, the 22 year-old London model, won the role of “Rita” in A Hard Day’s Night. She was the first of the schoolgirl characters seen on screen as she and Pattie Boyd walked into the train dining car where Paul spotted them. Prue sat with her back to the camera, but it was she to whom Paul was directing his pick-up lines. Prue sat with Pattie Boyd, Tina Williams, Susan Whitman and two other unidentified girls in the train compartment scene where John Lennon, accompanied by Paul, bursts in pretending to be a handcuffed prisoner. Prue had a couple of close-ups as she, Tina and Susan watched the Beatles perform “I Should Have Known Better" through the train baggage car cage.

The baggage car scene was shot on March 11, 1964 at Twickenham Studios after filming aboard the actual train had been completed. It was a long working day for the Beatles and the schoolgirls who filmed from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm at night. Crewmen shook the studio set baggage carriage to the simulate the movement of a moving train in the scene.

Avid amateur photographer Ringo Starr took lots of photos during filming - many of which were included in a unique special edition Beatles magazine published later in 1964 titled, Ringo’s Photo Album. It included a close-up photo of Prue Bury smoking on board the Beatles train. The caption by Ringo reads: “This gorgeous girl is Pru Berry (sic). She plays my girlfriend in our movie. Too bad it’s only make believe!” Prue didn’t actually have any scenes with Ringo (other than as part of the ensemble in the baggage car), much less play his girlfriend in A Hard Day’s Night. Makes one wonder if perhaps there were additional scenes filmed that were cut in the final edit? Prue commented about "snap-happy” Ringo’s photo of her smoking: “I love it, I look grown up!!”  

On March 12, 1964, the final day on set for the schoolgirl extras, Prue Bury posed combing Paul McCartney’s hair for publicity photos along with Pattie Boyd (with George), Tina Williams (with Ringo) and Susan Whitman (with John). The school girls wore their school uniforms in the photos, but on that occasion didn’t wear their white knee socks. Prue asked each of the Beatles to sign her movie script and Paul McCartney wrote a special inscription to her. Many years later, when in need of money, Prue sold her autographed script. Regretable perhaps, but, “That’s Life!” says Prue.

Prue Bury witnessed the blossoming relationship between Pattie Boyd and George Harrison who were falling for each other during filming. On that final day for the schoolgirls on set Pattie, who had just broken things off with her steady boyfriend, finally accepted a date with George for that evening. Prue told Doug Pratt (posted on his blog spot) - that it was obvious to her from the moment George and Pattie met that they only had eyes for one another.

Prue Bury was also part of a publicity shoot for the the film, along with Pattie Boyd and Isla Blair, at the Battersea Fun Park, in which Prue’s previous training in ballet shines through in her poses.

Prue married handsome croupier Terry Hooper in 1965. They’d met in 1958. After attending the audition for A Hard Day’s Night and meeting director Richard Lester and producer Walter Shenson - Prue learned at the beginning of filming they were looking for someone to cast in the role of a croupier for the casino scenes. Since that was his job, Prue suggested her boyfriend Terry Hooper and he was hired.

Prue followed up her uncredited role in The Beatles’ film with another brief uncredited role in the Dave Clark Five’s film, “Catch Us If You Can”, released in the UK in April 1965 (retitled “Having A Wild Weekend” in the its USA release). There are a few brief glimpses of the newly Sassoon bobbed Prue looking rather Goth (ahead of her time!) in her scenes - including one in which she’s dancing at a costume party with a Wolfman character. 

Quintessential 60’s designer, Mary Quant, expanded her business into the American market in 1965 when Puritan Fashions contacted her and worked out a deal to distribute her designs to upscale American department stores. Ten days of sales promotional fashion shows featuring four British models began in New York City in May, soon followed by a three week summer fashion show tour across America. Prue Bury had known and worked with Mary Quant for years by this time and it was her new husband, Terence Hooper, 31, who was at the time fashions director of the Youthquake promotion. He was responsible for bringing Mary Quant and Foale & Tuffin’s fashions to America under the Puritan label.

Mary Quant recruited Prue to model in the Youthquake fashion shows in the summer of 1965 and when she arrived in New York Prue felt she was in the middle of Beatlemania once again. The Boyd sisters, Jenny and Pattie, were modelling for Foyle & Tuffin. Photos of Prue from A Hard Day’s Night and the Youthquake phenomena were published in the newspapers and Prue was labelled a “Beatles’ Girl”. Everywhere she went young fans asked for her autograph and were desperate to shake her hand or touch her. Prue found it exhausting. But, there were fun moments too. Prue fondly remembers seeing Russian ballet star, Rudolf Nureyev - whom she’d previously met in London, at a New York party. She jumped into his arms in the middle of the party because she was the only person he knew there. (The last photo above shows Prue’s husband, Terry Hooper, posing with Prue - in two poses, and models Sandie Moss and Sarah Dawson, all wearing Mary Quant dresses, in a park near New York City’s Sutton Place during the 1965 Youthquake fashion promotion.)  

Prue and her first husband Terry Hooper lived for five years in New York City. In 1970 Prue returned to England. She had one son and another on the way. Prue changed careers again - starting her own business by opening a shop selling dried flowers - which flourished. After ten years back in England, Prue sold everything and moved to France to live under the sun and near the sea.  Prue is now married to Sylvain Fuchs and lives in a comfortable renovated farmhouse in La Caillère-Saint-Hilaire, Vendee, France. She enjoys putting on stage shows, and performed in “Daisy Daisy” in 2009. In early November 2009 Prue was guest of honor at the Beatles Weekend held in Ouistreham, Normandy, France. Prue was thrilled when, much to her complete surprise and delight, many Beatles’ fans wanted her autograph and were interested in her story. Prue charmed the audience with her fluent French.

Today Prue feels lucky to have lived during such a magical time in her youth. Her only regret was in not continuing with her dance career to which she had sacrficed so much of her childhood.

Most of the biographical information about Prue Bury comes the blog of Doug Pratt (dograt.com) who is personally acquainted with Prudence Bury-Fuchs and has posted many interesting photos and updates about her. Additional information comes from a 2008 French article titled: "In The Sixties I Swung With The Beatles" by Jean-Philippe Gautier. Doug Pratt reports that Prue has been contemplating writing a memoir!

All scans are from the Pattie Boyd’s Sixties Style group @Yahoo! except two from Doug Pratt’s website - Prue being styled by Betty Glasow and the close-up in the baggage cage. 

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Jenny Boyd posing for studio portraits, March 1966.

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JOHN’S BED in HELP (1965)

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A picture of Jane Asher during the filming of "The Buttercup Chain" in 1969. Snipped from the Lady Jane Asher Instagram and eBay.

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From the Something About the Beatles' Girls Facebook page: Pattie Boyd takes the same flight as Richard Harris in 1968.

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1964

Answer song to the Beatles' "I Wanna Hold Your Hand".

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From Pattie Boyd's Twitter: "The team from the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris have put together this beautiful book, 'The Flowers of Yves Saint Laurent'. They asked for permission to use the picture of me taken by Bailey on the cover. It's one of my favourite all-time pics so it was an immediate yes from me!"

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From the Women of The Beatles Facebook page.

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Harry Nilsson and Pattie Boyd at the London premiere of "The Godfather" on Aug. 23, 1972. Image is snipped from the Something About the Beatles' Girls Facebook page.

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Blind Faith play in San Antonio on Aug. 20, 1969. Image snipped from the Ginger Baker Facebook page.

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with Britt Ekland in an episode of “Aquarius”, 1971

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Eric Clapton and Mike Bloomfield in 1968 in a photograph posted on the Rock Photo Gallery Facebook page.

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THE DARKNESS OF A BRIGHT ORANGE MICKEY MOUSE -- WHEN THE DRUGS HIT YOU TOO HARD IN '68.

PIC INFO: Resolution at 960x1488 -- Spotlight on cover page to British underground newspaper, "International Times," a.k.a., "it" #27. March 8-21, 1968.

"In some ways "IT" created its constituency and at its height was selling 44,000 copies every fortnight – I’m told that number translated into about 200,000 readers. It covered every aspect of the counterculture, from the Hells Angels, skinheads, pacifists, vegetarians, communal living, sexual revolution, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll.’

-- THE GUARDIAN, "Covering the counterculture: the 60s underground press – in pictures," by Kathyrn Bromwich, published September 23, 2017

Source: www.theguardian.com/media/gallery/2017/sep/23/covering-the-counterculture-the-60s-underground-press-in-pictures.